But if you want to see how it comes about, look here at this freshly-grubbed land--how sour it is.
You can see that by the colour of it--some black, some red, some green, some yellow, all full of sour iron, which will let nothing grow.

After the chalk has been on it a year or two, those colours will have all gone out of it; and it will turn to a nice wholesome brown, like the rest of the field; and then you will know that the land is sweet, and fit for any crop.

Now do you mind what I tell you, and then I'll tell you something more.

We put on the chalk because, beside sweetening the land, it will hold water.

You see, the land about here, though it is often very wet from springs, is sandy and hungry; and when we drain the bottom water out of it, the top water (that is, the rain) is apt to run through it too fast: and then it dries and burns up; and we get no plant of wheat, nor of turnips either.